Dine My Way & all new Dining questions since cruising restart!!

[julie3fan]

6 minutes ago, MilVet said:

We are new to Princess (over 60 cruises with Carnival) and I despise Apps but it is what it is.  Booked on the Enchanted Princess in March '25.  Just called Princess abouth the three dining options.  The lady said you can sign up for the "Traditional" dining (5:00 or 7:30) but you can still go to the Reservaton or Walk-in restaurants.  Why wouldn't you do that?

 

IMHO, that seems like faulty info.  The reason *not* to do that is that in effect you're taking 2 tables, the TD you've chosen that would remain vacant, and the actual table you sit at if you don't go to your TD table.  Going to the buffet or a specialty restaurant would be acceptable, but not another MDR.  

[MilVet]

5 minutes ago, julie3fan said:

 

IMHO, that seems like faulty info.  The reason *not* to do that is that in effect you're taking 2 tables, the TD you've chosen that would remain vacant, and the actual table you sit at if you don't go to your TD table.  Going to the buffet or a specialty restaurant would be acceptable, but not another MDR.  

I agree.  We have been doing Anytime with Carnival since they started that concept so we'll just do the Reservation and Walk-in options.  

[Kay S]

6 hours ago, MilVet said:

  Just called Princess abouth the three dining options.  WThe lady said you can sign up for the "Traditional" dining (5:00 or 7:30) but you can still go to the Reservaton or Walk-in restaurants.  Why wouldn't you do that?

Princess phone representatives are notoriously uninformed.  I would not rely on advice from one of them, expecting the practices on the ship to be what a phone rep might think they are.

[arizonaperson]

9 hours ago, MilVet said:

We are new to Princess (over 60 cruises with Carnival) and I despise Apps but it is what it is.  Booked on the Enchanted Princess in March '25.  Just called Princess abouth the three dining options.  The lady said you can sign up for the "Traditional" dining (5:00 or 7:30) but you can still go to the Reservaton or Walk-in restaurants.  Why wouldn't you do that?

Here is the Enchanted P. Dining room information.

Traditional dining seems to be 5 PM and 7:30 PM with a few variations.

The reservable (Flexible is Princesses new term) a.k.a. dine my way starts at 5 PM and there are slots available every 20 minutes.

 

Open seating (Princesses new term) AKA walk-in is just that. 

 

Enchanted Princess-2024 & 2025

Santorini-Traditional 5 pm ( shared & private tables) & 7:30 pm( private table,no shared)

Amalfi dining room -reservable every 20 minutes from 5 pm-8:20pm ( able to get private table)

Capri- walk in

 

I know that you said that you’re not good with the app ,but what did you ultimately book ?just curious. I would think that you’d only be able to book  traditional dining or the reservable /flexible or nothing at all on the app and just do a.k.a.-walk in.

Day by day perhaps you could choose traditional one night and reservable on others,heard someone on cruise critic did that. My opinion is you should not be able to,but…..

Maybe that is what phone rep., was explaining to you? Or maybe the phone rep was explaining sign up for traditional now, and once onboard you could do reservable/ flexible and your other reservation would cancel automatically??

No one knows exactly right now how this new dining will work ,starts 9-15-24, it could vary ship to ship how they enforce any of it.

 

Edited August 19 by arizonaperson

[MacMadame]

On 8/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, Kay S said:

Princess phone representatives are notoriously uninformed.  I would not rely on advice from one of them, expecting the practices on the ship to be what a phone rep might think they are.

Yes but Princess said in the press release that announced the changes that you could change your mind and not be locked into a particular choice. So in this case, the rep and the Princess official info match. 

 

What remains to be seen is how they implement this flexibility. i.e., do you have to notify them ahead of time, can you just switch one day or do you have to switch for the rest of the cruise (or until you switch again a few days later).

 

Personally I think they know a certain percentage like the TD and the TD works better for them so they are adding it back in but they have lots of data about people's choices and they know that people are going to change their minds, have scheduling conflicts once in a while, want to check out the buffet and SD, etc. So they are prepared for it.

[suzyed]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:45 AM, julie3fan said:

 

IMHO, that seems like faulty info.  The reason *not* to do that is that in effect you're taking 2 tables, the TD you've chosen that would remain vacant, and the actual table you sit at if you don't go to your TD table.  Going to the buffet or a specialty restaurant would be acceptable, but not another MDR.  

Maybe the rep meant you could do either/or, not both reservations. If TD is once again not only keeping you at the same time but also the table with the same people each night then you get into the "notify my servers and table mates" mode when you plan to dine elsewhere for the evening.  If it's just the "fixed time" then that makes it easier to choose to dine elsewhere and they won't be "holding your table" in the TD MDR, at least not for very long.

 

[Steelers36]

On 8/19/2024 at 7:50 PM, arizonaperson said:

Day by day perhaps you could choose traditional one night and reservable on others, heard someone on cruise critic did that. My opinion is you should not be able to, but…..

Agree because the concept or idea behind TD is that the guest is at the same table with the same waiter(s) at the same time each day.  Of course - traditionally (hee hee) - guests will often take a break from their usual TD res to dine at a Specialty locale or even head to the buffet due to perhaps not able to make their usual time.  

 

I don't see TD as a bounce around situation among Walk-Up and booking a random res time.  Most certainly, guests should notify their waiter or a DR Host if they are going to miss a night and the DR host/mgr can seat a walk-up there so as to maximize table usage. 

 

What I am saying is, it is contrary to common courtesy to hold a TD res every day and not use it.  If booking using DMW App, any pre-existing res should be canceled by the system.  When they look up a guest who comes as a walk-up, one might think they would look up the cabin nbr or name in the system and cancel any other living booking for that night.

 

[arizonaperson]

Oh ……time will tell on how all the dining will “ work” when it gets going( 9-15-24 & beyond )with the new way. So many variables. It will be interesting to hear how it all comes into play. Especially with the unlimited specialty dining -premier cruise package.

[AllenF]

Wow we have only cruised Princess once and it was 14 yrs ago so you can imagine my surprise on all the *new* changes we will be cruising on Emerald May 8th 2025 14 day Baltic. I will say this if someone ask me what was the last book I read I will say it was this thread. We usually do not do TD because we do not want to reserve a table when we don't always eat in the DR every night so I do agree with some of the comments on here about that on not reserving a table if you don't plan on using it every night. Anytime is what we are accustom to when cruising. Looking at port times also plays into when we eat so it is nice to see Princess in providing lots of options even if it is a little confusing. 

[Thrak]

With so many people saying their dining reservations have vanished I decided to check on mine. All 3 cruises I have booked still show exactly what I booked for dining. Glad I checked but even more glad that there is nothing messed up. Still full green lane on all 3. Don't need flights on the first one and it's too soon to book flights for the others.

[PacnGoNow]

4 hours ago, Thrak said:

With so many people saying their dining reservations have vanished I decided to check on mine. All 3 cruises I have booked still show exactly what I booked for dining. Glad I checked but even more glad that there is nothing messed up. Still full green lane on all 3. Don't need flights on the first one and it's too soon to book flights for the others.

They made you look, didn’t they? 🤪

 

I had to look also!  I have 6 booked and don’t want to start over. 🤞 

[latebuyer]

I was so happy -with the app update i was able to update 2 reservations that disappeared.

[Travelforever4]

On 8/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, Kay S said:

Princess phone representatives are notoriously uninformed.  I would not rely on advice from one of them, expecting the practices on the ship to be what a phone rep might think they are.

 

2 hours ago, latebuyer said:

I was so happy -with the app update i was able to update 2 reservations that disappeared.

My completely disappeared ! 

[lorri111]

43 minutes ago, Travelforever4 said:

 

My completely disappeared ! 

Mine just fell off too

[SimonTemplar850]

I confess that I have not read this War and Peace sized thread, so please pardon me if the answer is already here. 

 

Is it still possible to simply go to a dining room at a time of my choosing and wait, if needed, to be seated? Do I HAVE to make reservations?

 

We will be sailing on the Island Princess in October.

 

Cheers,

Simon.

[HotRoot]

11 minutes ago, SimonTemplar850 said:

I confess that I have not read this War and Peace sized thread, so please pardon me if the answer is already here. 

 

Is it still possible to simply go to a dining room at a time of my choosing and wait, if needed, to be seated? Do I HAVE to make reservations?

 

We will be sailing on the Island Princess in October.

 

Cheers,

Simon.

Yes 

[SimonTemplar850]

"Yes" is not helpful. "Yes" to which part of my question?

[julie3fan]

24 minutes ago, SimonTemplar850 said:

Is it still possible to simply go to a dining room at a time of my choosing and wait, if needed, to be seated?

 

Yes to this.  Reservations are not mandatory.

[SimonTemplar850]

Thank you.

[arizonaperson]

@SimonTemplar850 yes you may dine in the walk in ( open seating) restaurant. On The Island Princess it should be Bordeaux DR.

The choices are: 

Traditional dining seems to be 5 PM and 7:30 PM with a few variations.

The reservable (Flexible is Princesses new term) a.k.a. dine my way starts at 5 PM and there are slots available every 20 minutes.

 

Open seating (Princesses new term) AKA walk-in is just that. 

 

Island Princess-2024 & 2025

Provence( mid forward deck 6)- Traditional 5 pm & 7:30 pm

Bordeaux (mid forward deck 5)-reservable,every 20 minutes  & walk ins

[memoak]

43 minutes ago, julie3fan said:

 

Yes to this.  Reservations are not mandatory.

But probably limited to one particular MDR

[julie3fan]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

But probably limited to one particular MDR

 

Probably not a big issue for the person posing the original question, as IMHO all MDRs are about the same.

[Kay S]

4 hours ago, SimonTemplar850 said:

"Yes" is not helpful. "Yes" to which part of my question?

Sometimes you need to "interpret" Cruise Critic answers.  🙂  In a week or so, Princess is going to a three-tiered dining system.  The post above by arizonaperson spells out the options on Island Princess.  So, yes, you can go to one of the dining rooms and just wait to be seated.  And, yes, for the other two dining rooms you need reservations.  For flexible dining, you make nightly reservations for any time.  For traditional dining, you make a reservation for another of the dining rooms, but it will be for the entire cruise, same time, same table.   Maybe what you want is walk-up in Bordeaux.  The menu is the same in every dining room.

[rheathslc]

28 minutes ago, julie3fan said:

 

Probably not a big issue for the person posing the original question, as IMHO all MDRs are about the same.

They all serve the same menu but starting on September 15th it WILL be an issue as only one MDR will be walk-in. So you won't be able to walk up to the host stand in the Traditional Dining MDR and expect to get a table. That's probably what @memoak meant.

[SimonTemplar850]

I haven't sailed dozens of cruises, but I'm not new to it, either. I was simply trying to decipher the latest Princess attempt to turn a holiday into something requring excessive amounts of work.

 

Thank you all.

 

Cheers,

Simon.